Thorman's Transport agreement 'not worthy of approval': FWA

Bulk cartage and heavy haulage provider Thorman’s Transport has become the latest operator to have its enterprise agreement rejected by Fair Work Australia.

Fair Work Commissioner Ian Cambridge highlighted a litany of errors in Thorman’s agreement and ruled it was not made in accordance with the Fair Work Act.

The agreement did not stipulate wage rates and allowances and copied obsolete and irrelevant terms from previous industrial agreements, such as referring to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission which was superseded by Fair Work Australia.

It also incorrectly cited the Fair Work Act as the Federal Industrial Relations Act and the Road Transport and Distribution Award as the Road Transport Award.

"Unfortunately therefore the agreement gave the appearance of a document that had not been created with sufficient care and attention so as to represent an industrial instrument worthy of approval," Cambridge says.

Thorman’s also used its office manager, Jemima Wills, as a witness to its statutory declaration form for the agreement.

"An office manager is not specified as an occupation or a person before whom a statutory declaration may be made...," Cambridge says.

The agreement cited compliance with occupational health and safety regulations and codes of practices but did not specify relevant laws.

"Consequently, for the reasons as stated above, the application has not been made in accordance with the Act," Cambridge says.

He says the agreement needs "to be substantially altered" before Fair Work Australia will accept it.